1An overview of the command line options you can give to DOSBox.
2Windows Users must open cmd.exe or command.com or edit the shortcut to
3dosbox.exe for this.
4The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option
5description:
6
7dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-conf congfigfile]
8       [-lang languagefile] [-machine machinetype] [-noconsole]
9       [-startmapper] [-noautoexec] [-securemode]
10       [-scaler scaler | -forcescaler scaler]
11
12dosbox -version
13
14  name
15        If "name" is a directory it will mount that as the C: drive.
16        If "name" is an executable it will mount the directory of "name"
17        as the C: drive and execute "name".
18
19  -exit
20        DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application "name" ends.
21
22  -c command
23        Runs the specified command before running "name". Multiple commands
24        can be specified. Each command should start with "-c" though.
25        A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or an executable
26        on a mounted drive.
27
28  -fullscreen
29        Starts DOSBox in fullscreen mode.
30
31  -conf configfile
32        Start DOSBox with the options specified in "configfile".
33        Multiple -conf options may be present.
34        See Section 11 for more details.
35
36  -lang languagefile
37        Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefile".
38
39  -machine machinetype
40        Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are:
41        hercules, cga, pcjr, tandy, vga (default) as well as the svga chipsets
42        listed in the help of the DOSBox configuration file. The machinetype
43        affects both the videocard and the available soundcards.
44
45  -noconsole (Windows Only)
46        Start DOSBox without showing the console window. Output will
47        be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt
48
49  -startmapper
50        Enter the keymapper directly on startup. Useful for people with
51        keyboard problems.
52  -noautoexec
53        Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
54
55  -securemode
56        Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the
57        bottom of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how
58        the drives are mounted inside DOSBox).
59
60  -scaler scaler

61        Uses the scaler specified by "scaler". See the DOSBox configuration
62        file for the available scalers.
63
64  -forcescaler scaler
65        Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of
66        the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
67
68  -version
69        output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
70
71Note: If a name/command/configfile/languagefile contains a space, put
72      the whole name/command/configfile/languagefile between quotes
73      ("command or file name"). If you need to use quotes within quotes
74      (most likely with -c and mount):
75      Windows and OS/2 users can use single quotes inside the double quotes.
76      Other people should be able to use escaped double quotes inside the
77      double quotes.
78      Windows: -c "mount c 'c:\program files\'"
79      Linux: -c "mount c \"/tmp/name with space\""
80
81For example (Windows):
82
83dosbox c:\atlantis\atlantis.exe -c "MOUNT D C:\SAVES"
84  This mounts c:\atlantis as c:\ and runs atlantis.exe.
85  Before it does that it would first mount C:\SAVES as the D drive.
86
87In Windows, you can also drag directories/files onto the DOSBox executable.